Commentary - Matthew 15:1-14

Bird's-eye view

In this passage, we witness a foundational clash between two kinds of religion, two kinds of righteousness. On one side, you have the scribes and Pharisees, emissaries from the religious headquarters in Jerusalem, representing a religion of external conformity to man-made regulations. On the other side is the Lord Jesus Christ, representing a religion of the heart, a righteousness that flows from the inside out. The presenting issue is a trivial one, ritual handwashing, but Jesus uses it to expose the mortal rot at the core of the Pharisees' entire system. He demonstrates how their devotion to "the tradition of the elders" had become a sophisticated mechanism for nullifying the actual commandments of God. The central point Jesus makes is this: true defilement is not a matter of external contamination but of internal corruption. It is not what goes into a man that makes him unclean before God, but what comes out of his heart. This confrontation sets the stage for the gospel itself, which is not a new set of rules for behavior modification, but a radical solution for a terminally corrupt human heart.

Jesus' response is a masterful display of biblical authority. He doesn't just dismiss their tradition; He dismantles it by showing how it directly contradicts the plain meaning of Scripture. He calls them hypocrites and blind guides, not as a mere insult, but as a formal, prophetic diagnosis. They were play-actors whose piety was a performance, and they were leading the nation into a ditch. The passage concludes with a sober warning to the disciples: any religious system not planted by the Heavenly Father will be uprooted. This is a crucial lesson for the church in every generation, a warning against allowing our own traditions, however well-intentioned, to obscure or even contradict the clear word of God.

Outline

Context In Matthew

This episode in Matthew 15 comes after a series of miracles where Jesus has demonstrated His absolute authority over the natural world, disease, and even death. He has fed the five thousand, walked on water, and healed multitudes. His authority is not in question for those with eyes to see. Now, that authority is challenged directly by the religious establishment. This is not a local squabble; the Pharisees and scribes have come all the way "from Jerusalem," the center of Jewish religious life. They are an official delegation sent to investigate and confront this Galilean teacher. The conflict here is a collision of kingdoms: the kingdom of heaven, which Jesus proclaims, and the kingdom of man-made religion, which the Pharisees protect. This passage sharpens the conflict that will ultimately lead to the cross, and it provides the theological justification for why the old system, represented by these leaders, must be judged and set aside.

Key Issues

God's Law and Man's Hedge

The Pharisees saw themselves as faithful guardians of God's law. In order to protect the people from breaking any of God's commands, they built what they called a "hedge" around the law. This hedge was a complex system of rules and regulations, the "tradition of the elders," designed to keep anyone from even getting close to violating a biblical command. The problem, as Jesus so brilliantly exposes here, is that the hedge had grown so thick and thorny that it completely obscured the law it was meant to protect. In fact, the hedge had become the new law. People became more concerned with violating the man-made traditions than with violating the God-given commandments. What began as a fence to protect the law became a fortress to keep people out. Jesus does not come to trim the hedge; He comes to tear it down and re-establish the sole authority of the Word of God written.

Verse by Verse Commentary

1 Then some Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, 2 “Why do Your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.”

The battle lines are drawn immediately. This is an official delegation from the religious capital, and they come with a specific charge. Notice what the charge is not. They do not accuse the disciples of breaking the law of Moses, because there is no such law. They accuse them of breaking the tradition of the elders. This wasn't about hygiene; it was about ceremonial purity. The elders had developed an elaborate ritual for washing hands that was supposed to cleanse a person from any potential defilement contracted in the marketplace. For the Pharisees, this tradition carried the weight of law. Their question reveals their entire worldview: faithfulness is measured by conformity to our system, our traditions.

3 And He answered and said to them, “Why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?

Jesus does not answer their question directly. He does not get bogged down in a debate about the merits of their handwashing rules. Instead, He goes right to the heart of the matter with a devastating counter-question. He turns the tables completely. You accuse My disciples of breaking your tradition? I accuse you of breaking God's commandment. And you do it, not by accident, but for the sake of your tradition. Your tradition is not a harmless supplement to the law; it is a hostile usurper of the law's authority. You have set up a rival authority to God Himself, and you consistently choose your authority over His.

4 For God said, ‘HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER,’ and, ‘HE WHO SPEAKS EVIL OF FATHER OR MOTHER IS TO BE PUT TO DEATH.’

To prove His point, Jesus provides a specific exhibit, a case study in their treason. He quotes the fifth commandment from Exodus 20 and the corresponding capital penalty from Exodus 21. The command is clear, direct, and foundational to a godly society. To "honor" your parents includes providing for them in their old age. This is not an optional suggestion; it is a divine mandate, and the penalty for flagrant violation underscores its seriousness. God takes the family structure very, very seriously.

5 But you say, ‘Whoever says to his father or mother, “Whatever you might benefit from me is given to God,” 6 he need not honor his father.’ And by this you invalidated the word of God for the sake of your tradition.

Here is the loophole, the clever bit of religious casuistry they had invented. A man could declare his assets "Corban," meaning a gift devoted to God. By doing this, he could tell his needy parents, "Sorry, I can't help you. The money that would have gone to support you is dedicated to the temple." This made him look incredibly pious while allowing him to neglect a clear biblical duty. It was a sanctimonious way to be selfish. Jesus says that by this clever little tradition, they have invalidated the word of God. They have rendered it null and void, without effect. Their tradition didn't just sit alongside the Word of God; it actively canceled it out.

7 You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you: 8 ‘THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME. 9 BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE COMMANDS OF MEN.’ ”

Jesus now pronounces the formal verdict: You hypocrites. The word means "play-actors." Their religion was a stage performance. They knew all the lines, had all the costumes, but it was just an act. To confirm His diagnosis, He quotes from Isaiah 29. Their honor for God was all talk, a thing of the lips. Their hearts, the center of their being, were distant from Him. Consequently, their worship was in vain, worthless, empty. Why? Because the substance of their religion, the things they taught as authoritative "doctrines," were not the commands of God but the commands, the traditions, of men. This is the definition of false religion.

10 After Jesus called the crowd to Him, He said to them, “Hear and understand. 11 It is not what enters into the mouth that defiles the man, but what proceeds out of the mouth, this defiles the man.”

Having silenced the leaders, Jesus turns to the common people. He wants to liberate them from this oppressive system. "Hear and understand," He says, signaling that He is about to lay down a foundational principle. He returns to the original issue of eating, but elevates it to a spiritual maxim. True defilement, the thing that makes you unclean in God's sight, is not about what you eat or whether your hands are ritually clean. That which enters the mouth just goes to the stomach and out of the body. True defilement comes from within. It is what proceeds out of the mouth, because what comes out of the mouth is an overflow of the heart. This statement radically reorients the entire concept of purity.

12 Then the disciples came and said to Him, “Do You know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this statement?”

The disciples are nervous. They are practical men, and they know that Jesus has just poked the hornet's nest. To offend the official delegation from Jerusalem was no small thing. Their question is almost comical in its understatement. "Do you realize you just insulted the most powerful religious leaders in the country?" They are worried about the political and social fallout. They still don't fully grasp the nature of the conflict.

13 But He answered and said, “Every plant which My heavenly Father did not plant shall be uprooted. 14 Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit.”

Jesus' response shows that He is not concerned in the least about their offense. Their entire religious system, this thick hedge of tradition, was not planted by God. It was a weed, and it is destined to be uprooted. This is a prophecy of judgment against the entire temple system, a judgment that would come in A.D. 70. His instruction to the disciples is stark: Let them alone. Do not follow them. Do not join them. Do not fear them. Why? Because they are blind guides. They don't know where they are going, and they are leading the whole nation astray. The image is vivid and final. A blind man leading another blind man doesn't end well. Both end up in a ditch. This is the inevitable end of any religion that substitutes human authority for the authority of God's Word.

Application

The temptation to pharisaism did not die out in the first century. It is a permanent temptation of the human heart and therefore a permanent danger for the Church. Every time we elevate a human tradition, a denominational distinct-ive, or a cultural practice to the level of a divine command, we are walking on the same dangerous ground as these Pharisees.

We must constantly ask ourselves if we have built "hedges" around the law that have become more important than the law itself. Do we judge a brother's spirituality based on his adherence to our particular list of extra-biblical "do's" and "don'ts"? Are we more concerned with outward appearances of righteousness than with the inward reality of a heart being transformed by grace? Do we find clever ways to rationalize our disobedience to clear scriptural commands, perhaps by appealing to our "liberty" in Christ in a way that allows us to neglect our duty to others?

The only cure for this is a radical commitment to the sufficiency and authority of Scripture, and a radical dependence on the grace of God. The gospel is not a new and improved hedge. The gospel is the good news that Christ is our righteousness. He did not just clean the outside of the cup; He was clean through and through. And He did not come to give us a new list of rules to make us clean, but to give us a new heart. True Christianity is not about avoiding external defilement. It is about having our internally defiled hearts washed clean by the blood of Christ. When the heart is made right with God through faith, then and only then will what proceeds from us begin to be clean as well.